Concerning the Church (those rowdy Lutherans, them)

Hello friends,

To the Lutherans reading and anyone who knows anything about Lutherans you are probably thinking: 'Rowdy Lutherans? isn't that an Oxymoron?' [and that isn't an over oxegenated moron either ; ) ] But really you need to read on and throughout this message to get what I am getting at.

If you read the title you are probably thinking: "the church I know about the church". And you probably have one of 5 different images coming to mind:

1) The building with a steeple on it,

2) The denomination of your thinking

3) The service that is part of worship

4) The institution

5) The gathering of fellow believers

So Since being here in Pietermaritzburg I have been to a total of 5 'churches.' So they have been any where from a Presbyterian, to a Methodist, to a Neo-Charismatic, to an evangelical to the Lutheran Theological Institute. And I think that they all have advantages and disadvantages to them.

The Lutheran Theological Institute is becoming very home like for me. It is just a hilarious place to worship on Sunday mornings (hilarious in a good way). It is mostly university students and their families so there are a lot of people from my classes that I get to worship with on Sunday mornings and worship gets hectic. So think liturgy, think structure, think tradition, but see the passion and the heart. We worship a Capella, and as such some of the hymns take on different tunes, We sometimes sing in isiZulu, sometimes we clap and dance, other times we sing with our whole heart. The best thing about it is that we worship unashamedly as a congregation. This past Sunday I noticed that we were worshiping in a bit more of a reserved manner. Which I found disheartening. It was a special all-Lutheran service involving several churches and communities from around the area. We had a brass band, a worship group, and wonderfully skilled musicians, yet something felt off. By the end of the service I realized that it was because we were in the presence of people from other churches we were acting more reserved. At one point I had a woman sitting in front of me shoot eye daggers for continuing on singing when the piano stopped jamming. I was kind of hurt but realized that it was not my fault that she wasn't willing to keep on worshiping when the piano stops. (I was hoping to talk to her after the fact and gently rebuke her but I couldn't find her, oh well for another time). At one point in the service we were singing "Shine Jesus Shine" and we were just sounding so very dead. So I took up the clapping part and started clapping loudly and unashamedly. :D It is so unfortunate that Lutherans take such a strong stance (whether overt or behind closed doors) against being actively involved in worship with their whole heart, and whole selves. I have been struck by the joy of worshiping with whistles and with wonderful joyful beats made on a beat. Not that it is unstructured it is just more free.

Anyways enough on worship, because that is only one part of the Church. To me the Church is a community of like minded believers who gather together to share life. Worship, prayer, bible study, are traditional elements, but does your image of church include playing cards? or board games? Does you image of church include having a braai (BBQ)? Or does it include staying up with a friend until 2 am or 12am talking about faith and God, and what it all means? I am slowly starting to see that really it isn't about the building or the worship but about the community and the people in the building. The Church is designed to be a community that builds each other up into the fullness of the stature of Christ. We are to speak the truth in love, and share our gifts with each other. I think back on the last couple of weeks and I think about the moments of real Church that I have experienced and I am encountered with hanging out with some friends over at their digs after having lunch and just chatting away the afternoon (Quite literally, I was hoping to hangout for an hour and change and then finish an essay but God had other plans.). We had lunch and then I got chatting with a guy (Peter) and we spent the afternoon hanging out. Eventually other people joined in the room, we had cake, and coffee, and before we knew it was 4 o'clock and I had to get myself sorted out for going to worship at NCF (neo-charismatic). To me the experience of lunch and chatting with people was more of the church than anything else I had experienced. Emily and I have been studying through Acts together and I have been struck by just how informal the Church seemed. It is amazing and incredible! It is so unfortunate that we often put church into a box like options 1-4 (see above) and ignore option 5, but truthfully the Church is when 2 or 3 are gathered in the name of Jesus.

That makes the church much more organic and frees us from certain drawbacks and constraints. The Church is supposed to be the Kingdom of God here on earth. Or at least we should be pursuing God's Kingship for our lives here on earth together. Yet we try to make church an event, or a building, but really it shouldn't be tied down.

Dear Friends I urge you to consider deeply on what it means to be the Church and take it up, Live the church, We should become the bodies of believers we are called to be, in the relationships that we are called to be in. Dream of alternatives and I will dream with you.

I will have more thoughts on the Church later on, it seems to be something that I am in a learning process about.

Peace and blessings!